Japan's Yukie Nakayama won the gold at the women's trap event today in Gabala.
On the second-last competition day at the ISSF World Cup in Azerbaijan, Nakayama (36) also secured an Olympic quota for her country as she came atop the podium. Chinese Taipei's Lin Yi Chun, the silver medalist, won the other quota.
Nakayama missed just one target in the whole event. She closed the semifinal with no misses, entering the gold medal match with 15 hits. In the final contest against Lin, Nakayama hit 14 out of her 15 targets. Lin only hit 12.
Nakayama and Lin each earned a quota place for their countries. Both athletes knew they would, as they entered the gold medal match: quotas would be awarded to the event's two highest scores.
Nakayama had last won a World Cup gold eight years ago in Changwon.
Lin (34) had never won a World Cup medal before.
USA's Corey Cogdell won the bronze as she beat Italy's Jessica Rossi in a shoot-off.
Cogdell (28) and Rossi (23) were tied in the bronze medal match as they had both hit 12 targets. In the following shoot-off, Cogdell beat Rossi by 5 hits to 4 hits.
Earlier this season, Cogdell, an Olympic Bronze at Beijing 2008, had already won a World Cup medal - a gold in Acapulco.
After the semifinal, the event changed its course as Russia's Elena Tkach was disqualified due to cartridge overweight.
Tkach (45) was supposed to face Lin in a shoot-off to decide who would enter the gold medal match. Rossi was meant to compete with Cogdell to enter the bronze medal match.
But as Tkach was disqualified, Lin automatically joined Nakayama in the gold medal match. The shoot-off between Rossi and Cogdell became the bronze medal match.
Lebanon's Ray Bassil (26), who hit 12 targets in the semifinal, came in 5th. Tkach was downgraded to 6th place.
"I got the quota place," says Nakayama, "so Olympic Games. [I'm] very happy. [It was] very important this time to get [a] quota place. I'm very happy."
"Thank you very much to everyone - my family, and my company, my sponsors, all that. I'm very happy. Thank you very much."
The ISSF World Cup in Gabala continues tomorrow - at 6:15 pm local time (GMT+5), the men's trap final will close the competition.
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